How to become a banker in Australia: careers in finance

Bankers are an important part of the world economy, facilitating international trade as well as the arrangement of insurance, loans and other financial products and programs for companies and individual customers. Bankers act as intermediaries between investors looking to buy and those hoping to sell. Your duties as a banker can involve monitoring commodity prices and trends, coordinating and negotiating prices with clients, explaining financial products and investment options to customers and undertaking credit risk checks.

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What does a banker do?

A banker has many duties to fulfil in their role, focussed both on engaging in customer interaction and completing essential administrative duties. A sound knowledge of the financial sector is essential in order to provide sound advice to individual and corporate customers of the bank and determine if investments and loans are appropriate.

Tasks:

Discussing financial products with customers

Negotiating purchases of resources and commodities

Arranging insurance programs for clients

Performing financial risk assessment

Preparing relevant financial documents

What skills do I need to be a banker?

Bankers must be able to interpret and work with financial statistics and trend reports, so they need to be comfortable with crunching numbers. Having solid financial sector knowledge will help you develop confidence and progress to senior positions. Bankers work closely with colleagues and customers, so interpersonal skills are of huge importance in communicating your opinions, influencing people and building trust in the bank.

Specialisations

There is ample room to progress and specialise in the financial sector. Specialising allows financial experts to work as consultants, analyse financial trends and mitigate risk assessment. Many who begin their careers as bankers go on to pursue leadership positions.

Broker

A broker specialises in buying and selling assets on behalf of investors and clients looking to obtain goods or profits. Market knowledge gained whilst working as a banker can help a broker’s ability to satisfy both parties with a final price and then transaction.

Financial Adviser

As a financial consultant, your responsibility is to provide advice to clients regarding their economic output and input. You would be expected to construct financial plans for your clients, outlining their various options for insurance, investment, superannuation and savings.

Financial Risk Manager

If you developed strong analytical skills as a banker and a familiarity with market trends, you could specialise in financial risk management. This requires you to advise businesses on market risks and liquidity risks and proposing actions to help mitigate these risks.

Study pathways for bankers

Find courses relating to commerce throughout high school along with work experience to gain knowledge of the working environment.

Industry Recognition

Getting a job after graduation

Put your training to good use and get the best professional head start in your finance career. Emphasise your personal strengths and achievements in your resume and target your cover letter to the job description listed.

Job Prospects and Salaries

There is strong growth predicted for the financial services sector in the next five years for qualified candidates.

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